All Blog Posts Tagged 'sales' (190)

Some months ago, I was phone screened for a Senior Recruiter role with a Fortune 500 retail company. During the phone screening, which lasted 75 minutes, I talked for roughly 10-12 minutes. Instead of digging deeper into the responsibilities of the role I applied for, the Recruiter spent most of…

Bad Relationships…

At a recent CSP (California Staffing Professionals) event, I had the pleasure of listening to Matt Payne, a long time disciple of Brian Tracy and now trainer in his own firm as he discussed the use of neuro-linguistics to program our thoughts into actions. I remember learning about Maslov's Hierarchy of needs in college. Matt put it a little differently. He posited that we basically have 6 core unconscious desires. (Not to be confused with obvious needs such as food, shelter and parental…

In our house, listening is the number one point of contention currently. It seems that our 5 year old son is able to turn his hearing on and off like a switch. I know that it’s just his age but it is infuriating the number of times one kid can be asked to do something before he actually acknowledges it. Ask him, however, if…

Employers had the advantage during the recession. Yet, gone are the days of hiring overqualified candidates at discounted salaries. Job opportunities are on the rise. The best workers have choices and we are currently seeing candidates receive multiple offers at competitive salaries. According to CareerBuilder’s 2012 US Job Forecast, here are the top 4 functional areas that will see the…

Recently when I presented the “Secrets of a Successful Job Search” at the University of Utah, I asked the participants “How many of you feel you have been discriminated because of your age?” About a third of the people raised their hands.

When you read about diversity recruitment most people discuss systems and solutions but I have yet to see anyone discuss the root problem. Possibly the reason that you do not see the root cause is that most people who write on the subject are outside…

I woke up this morning with my dog sitting next to my bed, waiting for me to open my eyes. His tail was going everywhere. Everywhere. And it reminded me of a conversation that an old co-worker and I had about "Wagging Tail Syndrome". If you haven't heard the expression, here is the definition:

Wagging Tail Syndrome (WTS): When your salesman gets off the phone without all of the job requirements saying they have the best order in the world.

Hate them or love them Klout is here to stay. While we may all question Klout’s scoring algorithms, we can probably all agree on the value of the outcome; identifying people with the ability to persuade via social media.

Poor HR, employee engagement is their responsibility, yet it is definitely one of those things that cannot be done alone. Employee Engagement is one of those things that companies really struggle with when it comes to prioritizing, surveying, implementing and monitoring effectiveness; why? Well it is overwhelming. When we think about engaging our employees and our teams we want to be sure that we have all of the pieces together, we want it to be successful and repeatable and there are a lot…

If you could help your company increase it’s sales and profits and look like a superstar at the same time would you do it? I am amazed at how shortsighted most human resource and recruitment organizations are when it comes to helping their companies win more business. Sure these organizations help to hire and fire employees but…

Your objective in a transactional sale is to sell your product or service: “This is what I have, do you want it?” There’s nothing wrong with that, especially if you make the sale!

But if more business and a long-term relationship with clients is what you’re after, you need to think about selling solutions. Selling project solutions is a different objective, which requires a different approach: “What do you need? I’ll provide it for you.”

So you have been looking for a new gig for a while and finally you find one that is worth checking out. You get on LinkedIn and see if you know anyone in your network working there now or even in the past. You find out the company is indeed a place you could see yourself in the future and continue to take the next steps. You ask your colleague to make an introduction for you with the hiring…

Whether you’re calling a new prospect or an old customer, don’t make the mistake of asking the same old questions. The first (and worst!) that most people think to ask is “Are you hiring?” What if they say no? Then you’ve just effectively ended the conversation before it’s had a chance to start.

If you ask the same questions, you’ll get the same answers, and these answers won’t get you anywhere. When you’re making sales calls, adjust your mindset. Instead of seeking out orders, try to…

When you think of a "salesperson", what is the association that springs to mind? Perhaps frustration, thinking of that annoyingly persistent individual at a shop, harassing you to add more products and services to your shopping basket? Maybe it's someone calling round at an inconvenient time to solicit window cleaning? These are better known as "transactional salespeople" and are the opposite of what a good business-to-business salesperson does.

Most of the positions I’m recruiting for require this strange hybrid of technical skill / knowledge while being able to close deals. That’s right, I need technical Tier 3 help desk types with all the appropriate certifications that want to earn commission and don’t mind cold calling.